Hello Everyone!
Wow, what a crazy couple days it's been, but we made it! Where do I even start...
The flight over was just fine, we landed a little late and the driver did not seem too happy about that, as if we could help it. We found our driver with a sign with our names on it and all we got was a forceful hand gesture to go to the door where the car was. Michael passed out in the car on our hour drive to the apartment from the airport. The very silent car ride came to a stop outside our small apartment building where we will reside on the 3rd floor in a very small studio apartment. When I say small, I don't think you understand how small it really is! (We will be adding pictures for you all later, maybe tomorrow) We were ready to pass out when we got here, but there was one problem, our bed only had a sheet on it and it was too late to try and buy something at a nearby market. Michael brought his pillow from home (I totally made fun of him for it too, regretting that now) and we had a coupe of those paper thin blankets from the plane. We piled towels and coats on ourselves to keep warm.
Side note: Sorry mom, I blew up your 25 year old noise maker. I have to sleep with some sort of white noise in the background, usually a fan but my mom had this small noise maker that she let me bring with. I plugged it into the converter and the next thing I know, I am asking Michael, "Do you smell smoke?" Michael says, "No, tired, need sleep." I look down and there is a flame inside the machine! smoke is coming out of all the holes! Holy cats, what do we do? I was scared to pick it up because I didn't want to burn my hands! Michael has a towel and it whipping it around the thing (giving it oxygen, feeding the fire!) In a panic that Michael may actually burn down the building in the first 10 minutes that we have been here, I picked it up, took 3 steps from the bedroom to the kitchen and threw it in the sink! Sorry mom, but it went out with a bang.
I woke up at about 4:00am and was wide awake. At this point I really needed a shower and I was excited to test ours out. The shower head is attached to the bathroom sink. We turn the sink on and push a button to turn the shower on. So, essentially, we will be showering in from of our bathroom mirror, there is a drain on the floor. I coaxed Michael out of bed, I NEEDED coffee! There is a 7eleven right around the corner from us, score! I thought I was grabbing a cold coffee when I opened the small fridge on the counter, nope, hot cans of coffee and they were delicious! We also picked up some cookies, a mountain dew, and toilet paper. The guy behind the counter gave us two things of toilet paper. I think he took one look at us and thought, foreigners, they are going to need some extra toilet paper. Who knows. The Mountain Dew tastes nothing like it does back home. Very sad.
As our day progressed, we went to the school and sat in on a couple of classes. The students were around 5 years old in my class. I got to listen in on circle time where they talked about what they did over Christmas break. They made new years resolutions and wrote them down. Most of them wanted to learn how to ride a bike. I got to help with spelling. They are so smart and adorable! Michael had a Q&A with the class that he was in. Students asked him about himself and then once they where done, they repeated his answers per the request of the teacher. Those little sponges remembered everything!
A couple of the staff members brought us to lunch, we had vietnamese food which was very delicious! We have not had a traditional Korean meal here yet because we haven't had time. After lunch we had to go buy a bunch of stuff for the apartment, since we got a band new apartment there is nothing in here. We got all our dishes, pots, pans, garbage bins, bathroom necessities, cleaning supplies and some other odd end things for around the equivalent of $45!
As soon as we got back here, we passed out! Now I am awake and Michael is still sleeping. It's almost midnight. We have the next three days off from work, so we will need to devote ourselves to getting on the Korean sleep schedule.
Since I just wrote a short book, I will end it here. There is still so much that I missed.
It was a great couple of days and we love it here! We will put some pictures up for you all soon.
Happy New Year!
Chayla
